Wanstead News roundup, 27.8.12; A new challenge, old battles & a minor mystery

* Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club staged a dramatic victory on Sunday to reach the finals of the Kingfisher Beer Cup, the national club championship. The final will be played on Sunday 16 September, but sadly in Derby rather than at Lord’s (nothing against Derby, but, you know).

* The Evergreen field – the usually untended but hugely valuable plot of land next to Christchurch Green – could be much in the news in the coming months. It is reported that the field has been sold and may now be the subject of a planning application. It was as a result of a campaign to stop development on this site that the Wanstead Society was originally formed. More here from the Wanstead Guardian.

* And a campaign is in full swing, backed by politicians from all the parties, to persuade the Metropolitan Police not to close Wanstead Police Station. It’s another rerun of an old battle. A special Area One sub committee meeting is being held on 14 September at 7.15 pm at Wanstead Library.

* Finally a minor mystery, brought to our attention by Wansteadium reader Matt. He writes: “I work in advertising, and recently had to find some footage from the 1980s for a mood film. Stay with me. While in the edit suite, someone walked in with a massive archive box full of DVDs from ITN, all containing archive footage. I picked out maybe 10 DVDs to look through, and started with one that sounded promising, so I threw in into my Mac and started flicking through it… The DVD started with a report on Mercury’s (remember them?) entrance to the pay phone market. The report started with a close up pull-back from a telephone box to a wide shot, I thought, ‘Blimey, I recognise that!’

Now I can’t imagine why you’d be so fussy as to send someone out to St Mary’s avenue from central London, so i’m guessing there was an ITN cameraman living in Wanstead in the 1980s. What were the chances of me coming across this shot? If you’re still awake, you can compare it with Streetview now.”

So apart from reflecting on how time has not been kind to the institution of phone boxes, the minor mystery of why Wanstead would have featured in this obscure bit of film remains. Anyone got any answers?

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